Is North Korea Ready for a U-Turn?

Kim Jong Eun's biggest obstacles to reform aren't Washington and Seoul, but his own party apparatchiks.

By

Chung Min Lee

Updated March 12, 2012 11:58 p.m. ET

At the first track-two dialogue between U.S. and North Korean officials since Kim Jong Eun's rise to power, Pyongyang hinted that a breakthrough in relations might be possible. Meeting in New York City last week, both sides discussed building trust in order to rethink geopolitics on the Korean Peninsula in the post-Kim Jong Il era.

A senior North Korean official stated that "unlike the previous generation, the new leadership [of North Korea] wants peace and will not fight with the United States." Another North...